| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 1,500 (2007)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States(  California and Nevada) | |
| Languages | |
| English,Washo[1] |
| Person | Wá:šiw |
|---|---|
| People | Waší:šiw |
| Language | Wá:šiw ʔítlu |
| Country | Waší:šiw Ɂítdeh |
TheWashoe orWaší:šiw are aGreat Basin tribe ofNative Americans, living nearLake Tahoe at the border betweenCalifornia andNevada.[1] Many Washoe people today are enrolled in theWashoe Tribe of Nevada & California, though some are enrolled in theReno-Sparks Indian Colony and theSusanville Indian Rancheria. TheWashoe language is alinguistic isolate.
The name "Washoe" or "Washo" is derived from theautonymWaashiw (wa·šiw orwá:šiw) in theWasho language or fromWašišiw (waší:šiw), the plural form ofwašiw. It means "people from here". Washoe was also written in older literature asWa She Shu.
Washoe people have lived in theGreat Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains for at least the last 6,000 years,[2] some say up to 9,000 years[3] or more. Prior to contact with Europeans, the territory of the Washoe people centered aroundLake Tahoe (/ˈtɑːhoʊ/;Washo:dáʔaw / daʔaw / Da ow – "the lake"; ordewʔá:gaʔa[4] – "edge of the lake") and was roughly bounded by the southern shore ofHoney Lake in the north, theWest Walker River,Topaz Lake, andSonora Pass in the south, theSierra Nevada crest in the west, and thePine Nut Mountains andVirginia Range in the east. Beside Lake Tahoe the Washoe utilized the upper ranges of theCarson (dá:bal k'iláʔam),Truckee (dabayóduweʔ), and West Walker rivers to the east as well theSierra Valley (a site of extensive freshwater marshes filled with cattails, bulrushes and alkaline flats that drain into theMiddle Fork Feather River) to the north. The Washoe would generally spend the summer in the Sierra Nevada, especially at Lake Tahoe; the fall in the ranges to the east; and the winter and spring in the valleys between them.Washoe Lake (c'óʔyaʔ dáʔaw) was named after them.
The Washoe/Washo were loosely organized into three (in some sources four) regional groups speaking slightly differentdialects, which in turn were divided in groups (cooperatingextending families for the seasonal hunt and living together in winter camps) and in nuclear families. The regional group was determined by where people had a winter camp:
Since the western part of the Washo territory was in the mountains and subject to heavy snows, few people wintered there so very few were organized into the western group.[5]
Washoe people are the onlyGreat Basin tribe whose language is notNumic, so they are believed to have inhabited the region prior to neighboring tribes. The Kings Beach Complex that emerged about 500 CE aroundLake Tahoe and the northernSierra Nevada are regarded as early Washoe culture. TheMartis complex may have overlapped with the Kings Beach culture, and Martispit houses gave way to conical bark slab houses of historic Washoe culture.[6]
Washoe people may have made contact withSpanish explorers in the early 19th century, but the Washoe did not sustain contact with people of European culture until the 1848California Gold Rush.[2] Washoe resistance to incursions on their lands proved futile, and the last armed conflict with the Washoes and non-Indians was the Potato War of 1857, when starving Washoes were killed for gathering potatoes from a European-American farm nearHoney Lake inCalifornia.[7]
Loss of the valley hunting grounds tofarms and thepiñon pine groves to feedVirginia City's demand forlumber andcharcoal drove most Washoe to dependency on jobs on whiteranches and farms and in cities. The areas where they settled became known asIndian colonies.
Piñon pine nuts gathered in the fall provided much of the food eaten in the winter. Roots, seeds, berries and game provided much of the food eaten during the rest of the year. The Washoe people were also deeply knowledgeable about their land and where resources were plentiful. This included an understanding of the seasonal cycles of both plants and animals. Wašiw people were also dependent on fishing at Lake Tahoe and the surrounding streams. Fishing was a huge part of Wašiw life; and each family had its own fishing grounds, until contact with Western civilization led to commercial fishing in the area, destroying another important resource for the Wašiw.[8]
The Pine Nut Dance and girls' puberty rites remain very important ceremonies.[9] The Wašiw people once relied on medicine men and their knowledge of medicinal plants and ceremonies. Much of this knowledge and activity has been lost due to contact with the Western world.
Washoe culture was based mostly on the legends that carried the explanation of different areas of life. The legends were handed over from one generation to another by storytelling and were told to younger generations to teach them basic things about Washoe's way of living. Children could get to know about gathering techniques, medicine preparation, and the legends were meant to teach them how to appreciate the land they were living in and give them a better understanding of Washoe's lifestyle.[10] Children were raised in the environment which recognized family as the most valued thing. The whole Washoe life was concentrated on cooperation and unity, and older tribe members needed to convey their knowledge to the younger so the tribe culture would survive. Everyone in the family had his own role in everyday activities like fishing, gathering or hunting which helped Washoe people with doing everyday life tasks more efficiently.[10]
The area of residence of Washoe people let them obtain food from three different ways: fishing, gathering, and hunting. Since each way required having special skills and knowledge people were usually trained in one field to reduce the possibility of failing the tasks they were responsible for. Therefore, the Washoe tribe's life was dependent on the actual environment possibilities. Also, scarcity of sources would not let the tribe perform every way at once, therefore the Washoe lifestyle was divided into three periods: "the fishing year", "the gathering year" and "the hunting year".
Fall was the richest in food season of the year as all ways of obtaining the food could have been performed. The winter period was the time of starvation as the stocks of food run out quickly and almost no food could have been obtained over the coldest months of the year. However, Washoe people learned how to survive the hardest time of the year by learning how to use the resources the land had given them. They knew they needed to keep the balance as each way of obtaining food was equally crucial for these people to survive.[11]
AnthropologistErnestine Friedl has noted that men and women's cooperation in gathering food lead to "no individual distributions of food and relatively little difference in male and female rights," contributing to gender equality amongst the pre-colonial Washoe.[12]
TheWashoe / Wašiw language orWá:šiw ʔítlu (today:Wašiw Wagayay) has been regarded as alanguage isolate,[1][13] However, it is sometimes tentatively regarded as part of the controversialHokan language family.[14] The language is written in theLatin script.[1]
The Wašiw language is now considered a moribund language as only a handful of fluent elder speakers use the language. There has been a recent revival of the language and culture within the Tribe. "Wašiw Wagayay Maŋal" (the "house where Wašiw is spoken") was the first attempt by the Wašiw people to renew their language for the future generations. The tribe currently relies on the tribal Cultural Resource Department to provide language classes to the community. However, there has recently been a pedagogical shift within the tribe, and the youth have become the focal point of language and culture programs.
The Washoe people are considered to be the indigenous inhabitants of Lake Tahoe area, occupying the lake and surround lands for thousands of years.[15] As the native inhabitants, they believe that they have the best knowledge of how the land should be maintained, and consider themselves to be the proper caretakers of theLake Tahoe area, which has been a center Washoe tribes yearly cultural gatherings, where most traditional events took place.[16] In 2002, The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources officially granted custody to theWashoe Tribe of Nevada and California over the land around the Lake Tahoe area for cultural purposes.[17]
Under theIndian Reorganization Act of 1934, the colonies in the Carson Valley area ofNevada andCalifornia gained federal recognition as the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. The colony inReno, Nevada, which also has a substantial Paiute, Washoe andShoshoni population, gained separate recognition as the Reno–Sparks Indian Colony. There is evidence that some Washoe settled in the southwest region ofMontana. The Susanville Rancheria includes Washoe members, as well asNorthern Paiute, NortheasternMaidu,Achomawi, andAtsugewi members.[19]
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